2015 Could Be The Best Year Ever For Smartphone Sales

Michael Moore joined TechWeek Europe in January 2014 as a trainee before graduating to Reporter later that year. He covers a wide range of topics, including but not limited to mobile devices, wearable tech, the Internet of Things, and financial technology.

Samsung leads the way as global smartphone shipments hit second-highest total on record last quarter, IDC figures show

The smartphone market shows no sign of slowing down after new figures show that the second quarter of 2015 saw the second-highest sales on record.

The latest numbers from analyst firm IDC showed that vendors shipped a total of 337.2 million smartphones worldwide in the second quarter of this year as consumers flocked to get their hands on the latest devices.

This figure was up 11.6 percent from the last period of last year, when 302.1 million units were shipped, as emerging markets helped continue the strong growth seen in the first quarter of the year.

However the total mobile phone market (inclusive of smartphones and featurephones) saw a minor drop, shipping 464.6 million units, down 0.4 percent from the 466.3 million units shipped in Q2 2014.

Booming

Overall, Samsung retained its place as the world’s top smartphone vendor with 21.7 percent of the market, shipping 73.2m units in the quarter. Apple took second place, with its 47.5m units giving it 14.1 percent of the market, as sales of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus affected a huge rise from last year, when it only had 11.7 percent.

Behind them, Huawei (8.9 percent), Xiaomi (5.3 percent) and Lenovo (4.8 percent) made it a Chinese trio to round out the top five, with the first two seeing a major surge in sales from the same period last year. Huawei saw a 48 percent rise in shipments to rise to 29.9m units, with Xiaomi also recording a 29 percent increase in units shipped.

“While much of the attention is being paid to Apple and Samsung in the top tier, the smartphone market in fact continues to diversify as more entrants hit this increasingly competitive market,” said Melissa Chau, senior research manager with IDC’s Mobile Phone team.

“While the Chinese players are clearly making gains this quarter, every quarter sees new brands joining the market. IDC now tracks over 200 different smartphone brands globally, many of them focused on entry level and mid-range models, and most with a regional or even single-country focus.”